There are many aspects to being a doctor. Just as important are the many aspects that go into being a patient. Of course, the difference is that one has been perceived as being a position of power and the other one has not. I don’t believe this distinction is useful or true in today’s world.
Patients and doctors work together, more and more, to get the job done, so to speak. Such cooperation is an essential part of today’s health care world. It is nearly as important as two newlyweds learning to live together and deal with each other’s foibles and idiosyncrasies. Well, almost.
Doctors and patients are of course simply two different groups of people with similar goals – to find out what is wrong and fix it in a timely fashion. One group – doctors, and let’s include all other health care personnel too – have areas of expertise that allow them to focus their efforts on delving into symptoms and signs of illness to find the diagnosis. Patients have their areas of expertise too – they know themselves and what is wrong with them. Of course, some people know themselves better than others do, and that makes the doctors’ jobs that much more interesting and useful.
